I am from Sony Pictures and saw your piece this morning on the attacks Sony has been under. I wanted to point out that the 1 million number you refer to in relation to an attack was announced June 2 by LulzSec, however, the actual number is less than 38,000. There is a notice on our web site:sonypictures.com (click on the red banner)

We recently broke into SonyPictures.com and compromised over 1,000,000 users' personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses,dates of birth, and all Sony opt-in data associated with their accounts. Among other things, we also compromised all admin details of Sony Pictures (including passwords) along with 75,000 "music codes" and 3.5 million "music coupons".

The decision to claim LulzSec was lying seems a gutsy one on Sony's part. Hopefully it doesn't backfire on them.

In related news, LulzSec published a heavily redacted email sent to Britain'sNational Health Service (NHS) warning them of security vulnerabilities that allowed the group to gain administrative passwords. LulzSec praised the group's work, writing:

In celebration of little girls getting bigger bones, we're now emailing NHS and informing them of those admin passwords we took months ago.

Because if we fucked over those that give health, people would literally die laughing at our antics. Poor lungs = poor lulz, people.

In the email LulzSecwrites, "While you aren't considered an enemy - your work is of course brilliant - we did stumble upon several of your admin passwords."

A spokesperson for the NHS told the BBC, "This is a local issue affecting a very small number of website administrators. No patient information has been compromised. No national NHS information systems have been affected. The Department has issued guidance to the local NHS about how to protect and secure all their information assets."

LulzSec, like the 4Chan-affiliated hacker group Anonymous, is loosely organized. However the membership of the group is thought to be much smaller and more elite than anonymous. Despite the fact that no-one is "in charge" the group managed to issue regular press releases. The group sometimes doesn't publish the results of its findings, if it appreciates the compromised organization. In other cases, like hacks on PBSand 2600 it has shown itself to remorseless at times.

Updated: June 9, 2011 5:17 p.m.

LulzSec graciously responded to these claims via Twitter:

"Sony Says LulzSec Lied About Number of Records Lost" - we didn't say we stole 1 million, we said we compromised 1 million. Silly @Sony :3

I'm inclined to completely disagree with Sony. Read LulzSec's press release, it clearly states ' compromised (this being the key word here, that does not imply they seized this information)over 1,000,000 users', then goes onto state that they did not actually seize 1,000,000 units, but easily could have.

quote: Due to a lack of resource on our part (The Lulz Boat needs additional funding!) we were unable to fully copy all of this information, however we have samples for you in our files to prove its authenticity. In theory we could have taken every last bit of information, but it would have taken several more weeks.

They didnt lie about anything, Sony is just playing the semantics game.

Had LulzSec actually taken the time to do so (which judging from their security had absolutely no idea about the intrusion until LulzSec made the claim), they most likely could have seized the entire thing.

Just seems like a terrible thing to claim for absolutely no reason. Full access is full access, the fact that not all of it was seized is completely irrelevant when it comes to Sony's security shortcomings.

Not to mention the repercussions from calling out LulzSec, especially when you consider the damage they could have done with the information had they chosen to do so.

Can't expect that from an arrogant, egotistical, company whose only goal is to look after their Psychopaths at the top, 2: their shareholders 3: maybe their customers if they happen to fit into the scheme of things.

There have been a lot of customer compromises on the Internet. From banks, no less. Government. The military. Do we expect Sony to be invulnerable to hackers while the others don't get so much backlash? Citibank just leaked 200k peep's worth of data. No mention? Does DT have a special angst against Sony?

You're right, there was an article about Citibank. My bad. I follow DT via a Yahoo RSS.

However, how many earthquakes and tsunamis has Citibank gone through prior to the hack?

I think Sony might have already had its hands full. Sure, maybe they needed to beef up their security. However, I'm also sure that the circumstances have given them an awful lot to deal with in addition to other things.

I'm not really trying to defend Sony. I'm just saying that a lot of the comments here are really over-the-top.

Sony quite literally left their doors open. If lulzsec had circumvented a complicated security system sony would be getting less flack. The fact that they are able to constantly steal from sony's databases is what makes this an interesting story, and what generates such resentment against sony's comments.

Back around 30 years ago, I swore off Sony (they intentionally designed their electronics to have an abbreviated life span). Since then, with their rootkits, refusal to support advertized features, and apparent disdain for their customer base, I am glad not to be part of the Sony Baloney all these years. They should be tucking their tales between their legs, apologize, and seriously considering a better business model.

Busting into their database is inappropriate and can only cause more difficulties for the rest of us, but I can't seem to shed a tear for Sony. Maybe makes up for the junk they sold me.

quote: Back around 30 years ago, I swore off Sony (they intentionally designed their electronics to have an abbreviated life span).

You're my hero. It's amazing to find someone with such foresight and understanding of what is going on in the world. Please do enlighten us on how Sony designed the short life span into their products. Oh, and let us know if some other company is perhaps making their cassette players to last the test of time.

I don't expect you to understand or believe this, but is is possible to predict with fair certainty (over a large population) what the mean time between failure of certain devices is. In order to design a reliable product, is important to derate the components used. In one particular device I disassembled, this was not done. Additionally, some composition resistors actaully CRACKED due to thermal cycling (they appeared also to be operated above their recommended rating). They were poorly designed, either accidentally or intentionally. Either is worth avoiding.

Based on the number of Sony devices I had at the time, the chances of this many random failures was very low.

If you believe Sony has the consumer's best intention at heart in lieu of extracting as much money as possible, please continue to purchase their products. It will please them greatly.

So it looks like your on the same bandwagon and agree that sony was incompetent, and derelict in their duties as a company and not safe to hold on to their customers information. Its obvious you wouldn't hand over your personal information to sony especially your own personal credit card#,not the corporate one, or would you.

Forgot to mention it looks like sony is trolling the sites for damage control to figure out the next big PR con, to make them look like the victims instead of their customers. Sonys motto" its a dog eat dog world, means that you must first watch out for your own interests", which is why sony is in the situation it is in now. Sony is just bumbling along, their mental capacity doesn't allow for mistakes this serious,especially when they have been caught with their pants down lower then normal.

In my opinion this isn't about semantics. Lulzsec did not claim that they stole 1 million passwords. It is just that many media outlets read "compromised" as "stolen", and i guess that Sony Pictures felt the need to correct this.

It would kind of be like that a jewelry store with merchandise for 10 million dollars get broken into (compromised, the thieves could steal everything), but then the theives only steal stuff for 1 million dollar, and then media outlets reports that stuff for 10 million has been stolen.

While about 38,000 passwords is still a lot, i think that it is ok to point out the difference between "compromised" and "stolen" :)

"Death Is Very Likely The Single Best Invention Of Life" -- Steve Jobs